CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST, historiated initial 'Q' cut from an illuminated choirbook on vellum [Poland, perhaps Wroclaw, c.1430]
Lot 17

CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST, historiated initial 'Q' cut from an illuminated choirbook on vellum [Poland, perhaps Wroclaw, c.1430]

Closed11 July 2018

Price Realised

GBP 2,500

More Information

How to sell

CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST, historiated initial 'Q' cut from an illuminated choirbook on vellum [Poland, perhaps Wroclaw, c.1430]

A charming illumination from the workshop of the Prague Hexameron, artists who fled Prague for Wroclaw in the wake of the Hussite Wars.

112 x 114mm, miniature: 96 x 90mm, mounted on paper (the initial cut out somewhat unevenly at the right-hand corners). Gilt frame (245 x 250mm).

In reconstructing the output of the workshop of the Prague Hexameron – so named for a 1420 Liber Exameron beati Ambrosii preserved in the cathedral and chapter library of St Vitus in Prague (A 131) – the most important sister group to the present cutting is a set of seven initials cut from an Antiphonal held in Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum EM 40.1-7): alongside a traditional Bohemian palette of chalky greens and pinks, the style is identifiable by the sharp-featured figures, clad in strongly-contoured drapery. The illuminators that fled Prague alongside members of the St Vitus Chapter, for Zittau and then Wroclaw, developed their own sub-style within the Hexameron group, defined by bulkier figures and further exaggeration of drapery folds.